


The Resurrectionist

by Wix



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Renegotiated Sokovia Accords, Gen, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Team Dynamics, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2020-11-22 04:59:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20868584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wix/pseuds/Wix
Summary: It's not the first time that Tony's clawed his way back from death; and as much as a part of him wants to rest, another part knows that there's work to be done.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So there might be some shipping happening in this story. Uncertain at the moment, but if it happens I'll be sure to change the tags so please keep your eye on them for any adjustments!  
And as per usual I tend to go with the age of Tony being 25 when he got the reactor so he's like 30 in this. Not sure if that's important but AU housekeeping stuff out of the way.

They haven’t had any communication with Tony since Germany. Well, no, that’s not entirely true. They haven’t had any communication with Tony as a group since Germany. As individuals though, that date changes. Sam and Clint haven’t talked to them since he arrived at the RAFT to inquire after Steve and Bucky. Nat hasn’t talked to him since the hospital where Tony found out that Rhodes might never walk again and where he turned around and threw her out to the wolves all on her own. Wanda hasn’t really been one to talk to Tony willingly since she arrived onto the team and that isn’t really something that Steve sees changing. Especially not when Tony had a perfect opportunity to open communication by stepping out of his comfort zone and telling the petite brunette about the Accords and the house arrest and he chickened out and didn’t.

Steve though, Steve hasn’t had any communication with him since Siberia. Steve hasn’t had any contact with him since those eyes turned to him in horror, disbelief and betrayal as he found out about the Hydra assassination on his parents not even ten feet from Bucky and learned that Steve never told him.

It wasn’t to be cruel. Just the opposite in fact, and if Tony had just been willing to listen, to give Steve time to find the right words to express the obvious truth of it all then none of this would be happening. This painful divide that feels like an open wound on Steve’s skin that isn’t healing.

The last thing that Tony said to him burns in his mind. ‘_You don’t deserve that shield.’ _Steve knows that he didn’t mean it. That he was just lashing out at something, putting his mouth first before his mind as he’s so apt to do without thinking of the consequences of his actions. Steve gets it though, and he’d hoped that given a little time and a heartfelt apology that Tony would be able to see Steve’s side of it all and recognize Steve’s good intentions. That he would be able to realize that sometimes it’s not about how it played out in the end, but that it’s all about the meaning behind it and the intentions that gave birth to it.

So to say that he’s surprised when Tony opts to go around him for his apology and give it to T’Challa to give it to the Avengers is an understatement. When T’Challa calls them into the conference room to inform them that they had managed to outlast the storm coming against them and that somehow all of the shouting and the angry mob voices had died down and that an olive branch was being extended to the Avengers who had fled the Accords, they are all completely caught off guard. It’s what they expected of Tony, of that Steve’s not going to pretend – this was just as much his fault as well if not a little bit more and as such cleaning up after his mess should just be assumed at this point – but apparently everything has fallen to the wayside and T’Challa is the bringer of good news.

Steve does have trouble finding sleep the night before they’re scheduled to return to the Compound. He sends out several texts, all of them going unanswered, as he lies in bed and stares at the ceiling wondering why Tony did it. Is it an apology? Is it an olive branch? Is it a sign that Tony knows he can’t do this without them? Is it a sign that Tony wants his family back? Each of those answers seem plausible, but at the same time Steve knows that the main answer isn’t any of them. It’s the one thing that drives so much of what Tony does in this world: fear. Fear about what’s coming. Fear about not being ready for it. Fear about losing. Fear about failing. Just so much _fear_. For all that Nat constantly mentions Tony’s ego for being the thing that controls him and motivates all of his actions, Steve knows that they all know that nothing is further from the truth. There’s no way you live with Tony Stark and ever come to believe that his ego is the thing that motivates him to do _anything_.

It does make Steve wonder sometimes about the man who came before the Tony that he knows now. About the Tony in Nat’s report. The one driven by his own need for adulation…yet there are times that Steve wonders if that man existed after Afghanistan at all. Sometimes Steve finds himself wondering how much of how he’s responded and reacted to Tony is actually the result of the man himself or the result of all of the reports that SHIELD – no _Hydra _– handed him. All of this seems like proof of the former. If Tony’s ego was truly the thing that controlled him then he would not have weathered the storm for them. He would not have rolled out the red carpet like he’s done, protecting them from those who would try to tear them apart at a moment’s notice and make the general public lose faith in them like Ross tried or Zemo did.

“We should think about doing something nice for him.” Steve finds himself saying aloud as they’re on the plane ride back to the compound and for a few moments he gets nothing but blank looks all around.

“For whom?” Sam asks, giving Steve a look like Steve’s lost them in a conversation that they didn’t know they were having.

“Tony.” Steve clarifies and he gets several reactions, none of them positive. In fact, the most positive is Sam who basically huffs and crosses his arms, looking back out the windows like he’s checked out of this conversation already.

“Why the fuck would we do that?” Clint asks with a frown. “Jackass deserves a Captain America sock to the jaw, not to have his back patted and his ego fluffed.”

“We wouldn’t have this opportunity if not for him.” Steve says and Wanda gives him a look.

“We wouldn’t _be_ in this situation if not for him.” She points out and Steve sighs, following in Sam’s footsteps and looking out the window himself.

“It was just a thought.” He says to no one in particular.

“What does it even matter?” Clint presses on. “Stark isn’t just going to hold our hands and braid our hair and dance through the fields with us. What does it even matter what we try to do?”

“At least we’d be able to say we tried.” Steve replies to that.

“Well, Tony will have to play nice to a point.” Nat says with a thoughtful look in her eyes. “We can start there and use it to our advantage. We can make sure that he doesn’t have a chance to hide himself away from us.”

“Sounds manipulative.” Sam points out and Nat shakes her head.

“More of a ‘fake it till you make it’ mentality.” She corrects.

“And what if he really just wants us to leave him alone?” Sam asks. “What then?” Nat crosses her arms.

“We’re his team, his family.” She says. “We don’t let him.”

+++

Steve is loathe to admit to himself that it’s one thing to have heard from Nat that Rhodes had been severely hurt while they’d fled from Tony, but it’s a whole separate thing to actually see him roll around in a wheelchair and _see it_. It’s like a sucker punch to the gut to see him like that and to know that it shouldn’t have happened. None of this had to happen if certain people had just _listened_.

Steve’s not surprised at all by the fact that Rhodes doesn’t say anything to them and just rolls away, content to continue on his current pathway from the conference rooms without so much as a hello to them. It just proves what Clint said, if that’s how Rhodes’ is responding then it doesn’t bode good things for how Tony’s going to be when they finally see him.

“What the hell is _he_ doing here?” Clint snaps suddenly and Steve turns away from where Rhodes has left them to see what or who Clint is talking about. The image of the man in the room with Tony makes his heart seize up.

_Thaddeus Ross_.

Clint’s right, what in the world is that monster doing here? And why is he talking to Tony in private?

“He’s the secretary of state.” Nat is saying in the background. “If he has a reason to be here then Tony can’t really turn him out. Not without serious consequences, regardless of how Tony might feel about him personally.” They watch the two men for a few minutes and Steve takes that time to take Tony in.

He’s looking so much better than the last time Steve saw him. A little tired from what Steve can see, kind of worn out around the edges even if he’s doing his best to hide it. It’s funny, Steve often forgot how young Tony actually was. He’s always seemed so much older with how stressed and strained he always is. It’s easy to forget.

They watch for a few more moments before Tony gives a small nod, signaling the end of whatever that meeting was and holding out a file for Ross to take, which the man does and then much to their surprise and dismay – he shakes Tony’s hand.

“That doesn’t look like he feels like Ross can go jump off a fucking bridge.” Clint points out and Steve sort of agrees. Tony’s at ease in that room. Sure, he looks tired but he doesn’t look stressed or backed in a corner like he had the last time Ross showed up and started throwing the Accords at them. The thing that really worries Steve however is the fact that Tony doesn’t look like he’s playing the ‘I’m going to get what I want from you whether you want to give it to me or not’ game like he did with those Hydra senators.

In fact, he looks almost friendly.

And _that _concerns Steve.

Ross turns and grabs his jacket, saying something to Tony in parting that Steve can’t make out before he puts it on and opens the door. He sees them for the first time, and an unhappy frown overtakes his features but besides that Ross doesn’t acknowledge them as he walks past them and leaves out the same way Rhodes had.

“You looked pretty chummy with Ross.” Clint accuses the second they step into the room and Steve almost wants to give him a ‘really Clint?’ look. Those are the first words that Tony’s heard from them and there’s no way to take that back. The first open conversation between them and it starts out with an accusation. Good going Clint.

Tony doesn’t respond to it, making just a soft sort of humming noise before he flicks his fingers through the air and makes the holographic screens fade away into nothingness.

“Ignore Clint.” Nat says, coming forward with a smile. “Hey Tony.” She greets in a friendly tone and Tony makes another sort of acknowledging sound as he grabs his own jacket.

“Hello Natasha.” He greets and his voice sounds tired. Not irritated, not angry, not really anything other than just tired. “What brings you by?”

“…we just wanted to come and say hello.” She says carefully, clearly trying to get a read on the brunet. “We know what you did for us, and we wanted to say thank you.”

“Not that you deserve it for doing the bare minimum.” Clint mutters just loud enough to be heard and Tony just nods.

“You’re welcome I guess.” He replies and there’s no inflection of emotion in those words. Nothing that Steve can get a read on about how he feels seeing them again and somehow Steve feels like that’s somehow telling him everything he needs to know. “Get settled back in. Do whatever it is that you do. I’ve got to get back to work.”

“Anything we can help with?” Steve asks. “I didn’t…we didn’t expect to see Ross here.”

“Why not?” Tony asks. “He’s the secretary of state and I’m currently dealing with trying to navigate the international and domestic waters that come with the Avengers Initiative. As such, Ross is in my path. Nothing I can do about that.” It sounds similar to what Nat said so Steve takes it at face value.

“We could help you with some of that.” Nat offers. “I mean, it kind of affects us too. We could order something in if you wanted and help you figure it all out. We’ve been a little out of the loop these days.” She grins at Tony and the other doesn’t seem to notice and doesn’t return it.

“You’re more than welcome to keep your finger on the pulse of anything I’m doing with the Initiative.” Tony replies. “I’ll ask FRIDAY to send you the updates. If there’s something you’re concerned about, make note of it and send it my way. I’ll see what can or should be done about it.”

“What _you’re_ doing with the Initiative? Shouldn’t it be what _we’re_ doing with the Initiative? Isn’t that what started us down this path to begin with?” Steve points out as gently as he can and Tony glances at him directly for the first time and it’s as easy as breathing to see the walls that are up right now between them when he does.

“You’re out of the loop, as Romanov has pointed out.” Tony says. “Figure out what’s already happened and what’s in the pipeline and then speak your piece. FRIDAY isn’t in the Compound anymore, not like she was before, but I’ll make sure that if she doesn’t feel like being the go-between that you have some way to get in contact with me.”

“And then what? You’ll make the choice on what’s important and what’s not?” Wanda accuses and Tony looks like he wants to just sigh and leave the room but Nat interjects quickly.

“What Wanda means is that we should all get together and discuss this.” Nat soothes and Tony shrugs.

“When it gets to that time, we’ll set something up.” Tony says before he goes to leave.

“We were hoping that we might steal a little bit of your time…right now.” Nat says, stepping in front of him. “There’s a lot of things that we should talk about. Things that we should get off our chest before it has a chance to fester and hurt the team.”

“As if it hasn’t already?” Tony asks her and she gives him a look like he’s proved her point. Tony glances at his watch. “I’ve got ten minutes and then I _have_ to go.” He says. “So go. Ten minutes, airing out.”

“It’s going to take a lot more than ten minutes Tony.” Sam tells him and Tony shrugs.

“Then we’ll consider this a starting place. You’re wasting time though and I have so little of it these days.” Tony says and Nat motions to the table.

“We should sit down.” She says and Tony looks like he’s going to say something against that, but he has some sort of internal debate with himself before he does over to a seat at the table and takes it. Steve doesn’t miss how it’s at the head of the table, preventing anyone from really sitting next to him, but he doesn’t say anything about it. They’re getting off to a good start here and he doesn’t want to jeopardize that. Unfortunately, no one is certain of what to say or how to start the conversation after they all sit down. Steve’s just glad that Clint and Wanda are wise enough not to be the ones to try and start anything here.

“We saw Rhodes.” Sam says after a few moments of silence. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s trekking along.” Tony replies to him. “His physical therapy sessions are going well.”

“Do they know yet?” Sam asks and his voice is oddly tight and Tony’s lips purse before he shakes his head.

“He won’t. Not without some form of aid.” Tony says and Steve feels so much pain crash down on him for Sam. Sam had expressed his worry that Rhodes’ injury might be permanent, and how it’d reminded him of Riley’s fall all that time ago. This must just be a knife in the ribs to hear that and Steve kind of wishes that Tony had been a little more tactful with revealing the information to the Falcon pilot.

“And how are you doing?” Nat asks. “How’s your arm? Your heart?”

“They’re trekking along.” He repeats the earlier phrase.

“You have a heart?” Wanda snorts softly and Nat gives her a disapproving look that makes the young girl glower and cross her arms, reclining into her chair with a huff and a pout.

“Tony I’ll admit I was worried. You weren’t…some of the signs you were showing were concerning.” Nat tries again and Tony glances at her.

“Well I’m still trekking along.” He says again.

“Where’s Vision?” Wanda asks, clearly not interested in the conversation about Tony’s health and Tony reaches out and taps his watch.

“FRI?”

** _‘Yes Boss?’_ **

“Do we have a location on the Vision?”

**_‘Vision’s ID card places him currently in his rooms.’_** FRIDAY replies and Tony makes a ‘there you go’ motion.

“ID card?” Steve asks and Tony nods.

“I remodeled a little after the damage left behind by Wanda last time she was here.” Tony says and Wanda sits up immediately with a glare and a hiss.

“You _made_ me do that!” She practically snarls and the look Tony gives her is almost…bored.

“Really? From halfway across the world I held a gun to your head and _made_ you throw Vision through several floors and into the basement? I’m impressed with myself.” It’s like napalm on a fire.

“You know damn well you were holding her captive here!” Clint snaps and Tony gives him a look.

“What strange captivity. One where you just walked in and took her hand after she committed assault and massive property damage and then just waltzed out.” Tony says.

“You know you told Vision to stop her at all costs.” Clint growls and Tony snorts.

“I said and did nothing of the sort and now you’re just making shit up to justify what you did. I said it would serve everyone better if she stayed inside where it was safe and where she would be out of sight and out of mind while Rogers here was running around losing his own fucking mind. If I had wanted to ‘stop her from leaving at all costs’ I would have _done so_ and a man with a bow and arrow wouldn’t have managed jack shit when it came to ‘rescuing’ her.” Tony says and Steve quickly puts a hand on Clint’s arm and shakes his head, mentally telling the archer to take the higher road and not to lower himself to where Tony clearly wants to take this conversation.

“FRIDAY isn’t in the system anymore?” Nat asks after a brief interlude of silence and Tony shakes his head. “Why not?”

“It was considered hazardous to your health.” Tony says and Steve feels a tiny amount of concern at that statement.

“Are our rooms still here?” Nat asks and Tony nods.

“Haven’t touched them, and the Accords Council has agreed to pay a monthly stipend for your continued stay here at the Compound so everything should be exactly as you left it.” Tony glances at Wanda. “Except for the kitchen. Had to be remodeled.” She puffs up a little and Tony looks at his watch. “Is that enough ‘talking’ for tonight? I have some things I have to go do.”

“We waited for four days in a cell because of all this shit.” Clint snaps and Tony just levels a _cold_ look at him.

“And I waited six hours to die in a frozen wasteland because of it. What’s your point?” He asks and Steve flinches, actually physically flinches at how easily Tony just throws Siberia into the conversation.

“Always has to be about you Stark, doesn’t it?” Clint throws back with a roll of his eyes and Steve gives him a look.

“Enough Clint.” Steve tells him firmly and Clint holds up his hands in appeasement but it’s clear that he’s not remorseful at all for what he’s said.

“Actually, it’s a good thing that you brought that up.” Nat says gently. “How are you doing?”

“I thought we went over this already? I’m trekking along.” Tony replies and Nat gives him a slightly disappointed look.

“You know that I’m not asking that Tony. I’m asking how you’re doing. We know…we know what happened there.”

“Okay?”

“…and we’ve all had time to talk about it. To come to terms with it, but we haven’t had that chance with you.” She says.

“I don’t know what there is to say about it.” Tony replies and it’s carefully spoken. Far too carefully to be unintentional. “I went there to assist Rogers and Barnes. Things didn’t go according to plan.”

“You turned on them.” Wanda snaps.

“That’s not fully what happened Wanda.” Steve is quick to say. “I know you know that.”

“I know Stark.” Wanda mutters and returns to her previously sullen look. Nat is still looking at Tony like she expects him to say more.

“What else is there to say? We fought, I lost, Rogers left.”

“That’s a very…generic retelling.” Nat presses. “How did you get out?”

“Does that matter?” Tony replies. “I got out. I’m here now. You’re here now. We’re all here now. Go us.”

“Tony, this is something that you need to talk about.” Nat tells him. “It took six hours?”

“Give or take ten minutes.” Tony says with a shrug before looking at his watch again.

“That’s a long time to be in…the state that Steve described you in.” She says and Tony’s eyes flicker up from his watch to Steve for a second before he looks away.

“Yes, it was.” He says.

“And there’s _nothing_ you want to talk about regarding it?”

“Nope.”

“Tony, this is something you need to talk to us about.” Nat points out and Tony just levels a bored look at her and reminds silent. It’s clear in his body language that they’re not getting anything more out of him right now regarding Siberia. Which is too bad, because Steve had kind of hoped to get it all out and behind them as soon as possible. Nat gets an annoyed look, it’s a familiar one that usually says she’s getting tired of Tony’s childish behavior. “Where are you staying these days?” She tries to start a new conversation and Tony motions around them.

“I’m staying here for right now.”

“You moved in?” Steve asks surprised. “Why?”

“There’s a lot of construction and new programs being uploaded. It just makes it easier for me to rest my head here and use whatever extra time I have to dealing with all of that.”

“Will you be staying around now that we’re back?” Steve asks hopefully. “Or are you going to leave?”

“Not sure yet. Haven’t really made a decision based on that yet.” Tony replies. “The Compound’s big enough for all of us, so I don’t really see a problem unless someone makes it one.”

“Do you intend to make it one Stark?” Clint demands and Tony sighs.

“Not really.” He says. “But I’ve got to go now. Your time is up.”

“We were hoping to get together.” Sam manages to cut in. “Maybe do something fun?”

“Have fun with that.” Tony says, standing up and everyone else stands up too.

“We were hoping it’d be a family thing.” Nat says and Tony actually pauses at that.

“A family thing? A _family_ thing?” He repeats before he gives a kind of humorless chuckle and shakes his head before he looks right at Steve. “Come now, everyone knows that my _family_ is dead.” Everyone reacts to that comment, ranging from a flinch on Steve’s part to disbelieving rage on Wanda’s face that Tony would even dare to go there considering his own history with killing people’s families.

Steve’s not sure if he’s thankful that no one gets out a word before Tony slips out of the room though. He doesn’t think it would have ended in anything else other than a second Civil War if they’d tried.

Looks like things are gonna take a little longer than he would have liked to go back to normal.

_Yay_.

Steve pauses when he notices the look that Nat is giving the door where Tony disappeared from. “Nat?” He asks and she gives him a look. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” She says carefully and it makes everyone look at her in suspicion. “It’s just…He had some serious injuries reported after the two fights.”

“Okay?” Sam asks, waiting for where she’s leading them.

“He just looks really good. _Healthy_ even.” She shrugs. “Record healing time.” And there’s something about that statement that makes the hairs on the back of Steve’s neck rise up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Thanks so much for the love guys! It's great to be back and writing again! Hope you enjoy the next chapter! Can't wait to hear from you again! <3<3<3

Rhodey huffs a little as he looks at the data that Tony’s laid out for him. Despite the fact that this is something they’ve talked about multiple times over the course of the last couple weeks, Tony can still feel Rhodey’s dissatisfaction with the ‘Plan’ from here.

“I’m not gonna lie.” Rhodey says with an annoyed huff. “I still think that you should have just let them rot in Wakanda.” He says before he looks up from the tablet at Tony across the desk.

“If Wakanda had been any kind of actual option for them long-term, then I would have preferred it too.” Tony agrees, and the honest truth is that he would have. He would have preferred almost _anything_ as an alternative to Rogers and his little group of followers walking into the Compound with their heads held high and acting like they were being so gracious and caring to _Tony_ after all of this. Truly it had taken every ounce of Tony’s media training to not give up the game entirely and show his hand too early and only show them what he wanted them to see: Tony Stark, tired and worn out, slowly being broken down by the world and by the threat of what’s coming for them someday soon.

So basically, the Tony Stark that existed before Siberia. The Tony Stark that _died_ there.

There were a couple of times that it slipped, his tongue letting out a little more vitriol than Tony probably should have but it was clear that he still succeeded in his attempts, although there were a few close calls there. Years of that version of Tony being true had helped pull the wool over their eyes when given a variance of it once again. The ‘Rogue Avengers’ immediate heavy-handed attempts at trying to shift everything back to the dynamics that it was previously told Tony everything that he needed to know., and that was that they hadn’t learned _anything_. They didn’t feel _anything_. Not remorse for what they had done, not guilt for all the pain and damage that they’d caused. Not even the slightest amount of kindness or understanding or pity for the man that they had betrayed and walked over and abandoned.

And honestly, that made Tony’s job so much easier. If they hadn’t felt even the _slightest_ remorse for what they’d done after everything with the ‘Civil War’, then they were never going to. Pity. If they’d shown even an _ounce_ of regret for the people’s lives that they’d damaged and hurt and _killed_ then Tony would have stayed his hand. If they had shown that they were capable of learning from their mistakes or even just _recognizing_ that they had made one then he would have changed directions entirely. That’s all it would have taken. Just the barest inclination of understanding or regret for _one_ person harmed by their self-important little crusade. It didn’t even have to be Tony himself, in fact, he doubted it ever would have been.

But that remorse hadn’t been there. Not even for a second. No, it was the fall of SHIELD all over again. With Steve and Nat and the others turning a blind eye to the damage and just expecting Tony to come in and fix it all like a good little slave. It was Sokovia all over again, where the lives of people not directly connected to them meant nothing to them even for a moment. Zemo had a point, and Tony had known it when the man had said it, even if he hadn’t wanted to deal with it at the time that it’d been said.

“Wakanda was not the place for them.” Tony says, returning to the moment at hand. “Getting waited on hand and foot in a literal palace while waiting to be reinstated, which would have happened if they’d stay there long enough and that was not something I could allow.” Tony reaches out and flips to another screen. “No, if T’Challa had actually managed to keep them out of sight and out of mind long enough then the general populace would have turned on _us_. They wouldn’t have cared about the fact that we were innocent in all of that or that we stood against it. They’d just crucify us in his place and then after they’d gotten their pound of flesh from us, they would have welcomed them back with open arms and clean memories.” Tony shakes his head. “No, no we’re not paying the price for them anymore while they get to just waltz back in and pretend they did nothing wrong. Never again.”

“Did you have to get them reinstated to the Avengers though?”

“You know I did.” Tony says, glancing back up at him. “There was no other way that this was going to play out to any satisfactory ending without letting Rogers and his little group of sheep back into the country and into the Avengers Initiative with little gold stars on their homework.” Rhodey huffs a little at that.

“…yeah I know. It’s just fucking annoying.” He says. “Although I still can’t believe you managed to convince Ross to go along with it.”

“It took some finagling, but I managed to convince him that we can keep a much closer eye on them if they’re here under our roof with some kind of oversight verses them being in Wakanda being pampered by a traitor.” Tony replies. “You know, the whole ‘keep your enemies closer’ sort of thing?”

“As if they’ve ever listened to oversight.” Rhodey snorts. “How did you get Ross to believe that? He knows that’s what started this whole thing to begin with.”

“Oh come on Rhodey, you know that I’m very, _very _good.” Tony says with a smirk and a huff. “And honestly, them chafing under any form of oversight, big or small, is exactly what we need from them right now.” He looks back down at the tablet. “Rogers and his ilk have just gotten bolstered by the belief that they’ve just gotten everything they wanted. They’re not looking the gift horse in the mouth like they should be. Instead, it’s clearly going to make them just even more entitled and blinded by their own delusions of self-importance and _that_ is going to make my job a lot easier.”

“I still don’t get why you decided to move yourself into the Compound for this?” Rhodey asks. “I mean, you can pull this off just as easily from anywhere else in the world. Why put yourself in their crosshairs unnecessarily?”

“I know I could.” Tony says with a nod. “But the simple reason as to why I chose to do that is this: I’m a distraction.”

“A distraction?”

“Yup.” Tony agrees. “See, the Rogers is clearly determined to bury his head in the sand and try to force everything to go back to the way it was before, and the others are already taking a page from his book on that too. Natasha has already started moving in with the ‘I’m your friend – or I would be if you’d get over your own ego and let me be’ routine, Clint and Wanda are clearly vindicated by their return and believe that they can say and soon believe they can _do_ anything and get away with it without any form of recourse and Wilson is still just as much of a follower of Rogers as ever.” Tony can feel the amused smirk tugging at his lips. “So if I’m in their space they’ll be so distracted by the interpersonal relationships of the whole thing and not pay attention to what’s happening _outside_ of the Compound. Even better, even if they do start noticing the way the wind is starting to blow if they think that they can get me under their thumb again then they’ll ignore the warning signs in the misguided belief that they’ll regain control over me and my resources and then there will be nothing but smooth sailing.”

“You sure about that?”

“I’d bet my life on it.” Tony says before he pauses. “Which I guess incidentally I am.” Rhodey frowns at that. “Look Rhodey, Rogers only has one setting and for the first time that’s going to work for me instead of against me.” Tony starts to explain. “Rogers doesn’t know how to be anything but the ‘nice guy martyr who does regrettable things but he meant well so it doesn’t count and he’ll beat down anyone else who says otherwise’. Unfortunately for him, after everything that he’s done the blinders of over fifty years of propaganda is finally starting to fall away. Maybe not here in the states yet, which is the only reason why I could pull this off, but certainly in the rest of the world. I just need to keep giving him the rope, he’s already tied the noose around himself and the others. Tony shakes his head. “Honestly I think that the plan might come together much quicker than I originally planned. I didn’t actually fully expect them to jump right into it from the outset. I figured they’d at least wait twenty-four hours to unpack and settle back in first.”

“Psh. I’m not surprised.” Rhodey snorts. “As you said, they only have one setting. And that’s ‘shit on Tony’.” Rhodey says before he looks at him. “But promise me something Tony, promise me you’re going to be careful. I mean, I know you’ve got shiny new bells and whistles, but Wanda can still do a lot of fucking damage and you’re not bulletproof or arrow proof if someone decides to try and do you in for good this time.”

“I doubt Natasha would actively do that, but Barton I’m not so sure about. If it comes down to that though then honestly it’ll work in my favor so I say let them try.” Tony gives him a smile. “For all we know I _am_ arrow proof these days.” Tony waves off the concern with his hand. “I doubt it’ll happen though. Fury will undoubtedly be reaching back out to Natasha and Barton to try and regain some form of control before I push us off into the global sector and make it impossible for SHIELD to step back into the position it used to have.” Tony pauses as he thinks about it. “Although I have no doubts that the pirate is gonna throw a curve ball or two at me before the end of it. Especially once he realizes that Pepper’s coming for them.” And isn’t that going to be a glorious thing? SHIELD finally done away with and all their spy and terrorist crap done away with just like he should have done the first time that Coulson walked into his home and pretended to have any sort of authority or control over Tony and his work.

“Just…be careful Tony.” Rhodey pleads with him. “These people are fucking crazy and they’ve killed you once already.”

“I know.” Tony says, softening his tone. “And I will Rhodey, I promise.” The assurance sits between them for a moment before Rhodey nods and lets out a small sigh.

“Okay then, I’ll trust you. So, what’s next on the plan?”

“Well according to FRIDAY, Natasha took the bait and now she has them all curious about what ‘crazy thing’ I’ve done in order to recover. So that’s gonna start eating away at them and get the ball rolling along quite nicely.” Tony says and Rhodey snorts.

“You know, for how much Rogers is a one-trick pony, Romanov fits right in there with him.”

“She’s not the long con agent.” Tony says with a shrug. “Short con? Sure. She’s golden for as long as she can bat her eyelashes for less than ten minutes at a time, but long term? Never been her strong suit and that’s showing itself now more than ever.” Tony says. “To be honest, I’m surprised that the pirate didn’t try to get someone else in here after Pep booted Hill out of the building. Hill was good, Natasha is overrated.”

“She might be overrated, but she’s good at playing the right-hand woman to Rogers.” Rhodey warns.

“Which is exactly what I need from her.” Tony agrees and he pauses as he looks over some information. “I need their stupid little group think thing to freak out over whatever new thing I’ve done and be the only thing that they can focus on.”

“That’s a dangerous place to be.”

“I know, but I can handle it now that I know without a shadow of a doubt that they’re my enemies.” Tony looks at him. “And you know what I do to my enemies.”

“All I can say about that is hallelujah and it’s about time.” Rhodey says and Tony chuckles for a moment before he looks at the screen again.

“Although…there is one thing that I wanted your opinion on. I need to start moving forward with a plan for this and I guess…I guess I’ve been avoiding it.”

“Shoot.”

“Barnes.” Tony says and he can see how Rhodey goes carefully neutral at the name. “I’ve kept him out of all of the plans, just like Lang, but T’Challa has just informed me of some rather troubling and honestly bullshit information.”

“What is it?”

“Apparently they’ve put Barnes back on ice.” Tony says and Rhodey looks surprised. “Yeah, that was my reaction too. T’Challa told me how they had to ice him since they can’t help him and they needed to be sure he didn’t Winter Soldier anyone.”

“They put him back on ice?” Rhodey repeats. “What the…what even was the point then? Isn’t that _worse_ than the offer that you had on the table for him? At least with yours he was free and healing and getting cleared, with this he’s just a fucking popsicle.”

“Of course, him getting put on ice is a better end then anything _I_ could ever offer.” Tony says with a roll of his eyes. “Rogers didn’t care about Barnes. He cared about ‘winning’. About ‘planting himself like a tree’ and all that bullshit. He doesn’t care what his victory costs or looks like to everyone else, it just matters that he can feel like he came out on top at the end.” Tony says before he pauses. “But…I will not deny that Barnes…Barnes is innocent and undeserving of this or their fate. Hydra fucked him over and Rogers fucked him over bad, I didn’t feel like adding to that.”

“So you want my opinion on what to do about Barnes?”

“Yeah.” Tony agrees and Rhodey thinks about it for a moment before he speaks.

“Honestly Tones, I think you know the answer already but if it were _me_, I’d help clear him. He got the short end of the stick and then Rogers broke off even more of it over and over again. I don’t think you believe that he deserves your wrath or the wrath of this world for things he didn’t have control over.”

“…yeah…that’s what I was thinking too.” Tony admits. “I just…I just wanted a second opinion.”

“Well you’ve got it. Although Rogers is going to be ecstatic.”

“Yup. Or suspicious, which let’s be honest is more likely.” Tony says. “But I wanted to be sure that if I did this, that I didn’t do it for any reason connected to Rogers and his little followers. Sure, it’s a nice bonus, and it’ll factor into the rest of it, but I wanted to be sure that if I helped Barnes that it was because Barnes deserved my help and I wanted to be able to do it with no strings attached.”

“I think you’re good on that front.” Rhodey says with a small nod. “Just because Rogers will turn it into being all about him doesn’t mean that it actually is. I’d say go for it, and I’m sure Pep and Happy would agree with me.”

“Yeah, I’ll ask them their thoughts on the matter. Things can get…sticky and complicated where all of this is concerned and it’s good to know that I can ask an outside source for help.” Tony pauses. “I should have been doing that this whole time.”

“Hey, none of that. They pulled the wool over your eyes. Okay fine, fuck them.” Rhodey tells him and Tony smiles.

“Yeah, fuck them.”

“That is a sentiment I think all of us can get behind.” Rhodey laughs.

“I agree.” Tony claps his hands together and looks at the screens. “Okay then, I guess it’s time to get this show on the road. There’s still a lot of minute planning to be done and now I’ve got to factor Barnes into it all which means dealing a little bit more with T’Challa then I ever wanted to, but it is what it is.”

“You know you’ve got us to call upon.” Rhodey says and Tony nods.

“I do.”

“Good. Just…just this time please don’t shut us out Tony. We’re here to help you, but remember you gotta ask.”

“I know.” Tony says with a smile. “And trust me Platypus, I’m asking. I’m doing all the asking. I promise, I’m not going to shut you guys out of this again. This is a group project, and I’m kind of done holding up everyone without anything to show for it. That crap has to end and it’s ending now. We’re building something better but that starts here in this room, and it starts with that.” Tony promises. “We’re in this together. All of us.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Rhodey says with a smile. “Alright then, operation: Kick the Rogues’ asses’ is a go.”

“That’s the name of our operation? That sounds worse than something Harley or Peter would come up with.”

“Well they can’t cuss. So it’s already a hundred times better than anything they’d come up with.” Rhodey retorts and Tony laughs.

“Right, I forgot that the power of curse words in a codename instantly makes it better.” He says and Rhodey grins.

“Damn straight.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU ALL!   
So much love from me to you! And here's the next chapter for you all just to show it!

The Compound is quiet, almost eerily so. Most of Steve’s memories of the place – and it seems so strange to say ‘memories’ as if the last time they were all here and happy was so long ago instead of just a few weeks – consist of Tony’s unrelenting and unbounding energy. Normally there’s some sort of loud, pounding noise that Tony insists on calling ‘classic’ music or the sound of chaos happening down in the labs.

None of that is happening right now though. Instead the labs doors are closed and Steve can hear nothing from the other side. He’s not even really sure if Tony’s actually in there right now since FRIDAY’s no longer giving immediate updates on its creator’s location whenever one of them ask for it.

_“There’s a lot of hostility there Steve.” Natasha said as they all stood around in Steve’s room and discussed the first meeting with their resident billionaire. “Did you see it?” _

_“I saw it.” Sam offers up helpfully and Steve shakes his head. _

_“Not really. He looked more tired than anything else.” Steve admits. “I doubt he’s been taking care of himself properly.” _

_“I doubt he’ll let us help with that right now like he should.” Clint snorts with a roll of his eyes. “Fuck Cap. If I wanted to babysit, I’d babysit my own kids and let Laura have the night off.” _

_“Stark being a baby is about the only thing I expected from him.” Wanda offers up and she gets a few amused looks and Steve sighs. _

_“Look, we’ve got to make some headway. Start putting this behind us somehow.” Steve tells them. _

_“Tony’s too proud to be the first one to blink.” Nat warns them. “Even when he should.” _

_“Isn’t that the story of our lives?” Clint asks. “Stark fucks up and we have to blink first?” _

_“Regardless, if we don’t get in front of this then things could get…complicated.” Nat points out, mostly ignoring Clint’s comments. _

_“Complicated?” Sam asks, catching onto the word. “Complicated how?” _

_“Like it or not, we’re…well for lack of a better word to use, dependent on Tony’s goodwill.” Nat says and she gets a few annoyed looks at pointing it out. “Our gear for starters.” _

_“You think Tony would intentionally mess with our gear?” Steve asks and Nat shakes her head. _

_“No, not his style. He’d never damage something of his own, but deciding to _not_ work on it? That he would do. And if our gear isn’t maintained and updated constantly then there’s a chance we could have problems on the field.” _

_“Isn’t the Council supposed to maintain that?” Sam asks. “What good are they for if they can’t?” _

_“They can’t force Tony to do any work that would in theory be seen as either taking away his time to earn his own livelihood or stealing his ideas or time which is pretty much patented by Stark Industries. What Tony does, he has to be seen doing of his own free will or things get tricky legalistically.” _

_“SHIELD used to get Tony to keep up with all of our stuff before.” Steve points out. “How did they do it?” _

_“Carefully, very _very_ carefully.” Nat says. “And if we want to go back to how things were then we’re going to have to treat this very carefully too.” _

_“Well what about T’Challa?” Sam asks. “Couldn’t we just ask him? Didn’t he offer to look into giving you a new shield Steve?” Steve nods at that remembrance. _

_“He did. I’m sure if I asked, I could get some assistance in the meantime with our gear while Tony’s…not available.” Steve says and Clint snorts. _

_“Fuck that Cap. If the King is willing to be our gear guy, I say we kick Stark to the curb. Out with the old model and in with the new.” _

_“We shouldn’t be so quick to throw Stark away.” Nat warns them all instantly even though Steve can see that most of them are already considering all the ways that their lives would be easier with the King backing them over just a billionaire. Dealing with T’Challa certainly felt a lot easier and a lot less like one was wrangling with a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum all the time. _

_“Nat’s right. Tony’s part of this team.” He says and he sees the looks that Wanda and Clint throw him. “He is, period. Which means we’re going to take the time it takes to fix this.” _

_“Whatever you say Cap.” Clint says with a sigh. _

_“I say it’s a waste of time.” Wanda mutters and Steve runs a hand through his hair. _

_“Okay, so let’s talk solutions and ideas.” He says as they all settle in to plan. _

Steve walks into the kitchen and he pauses when he sees a familiar face that he wasn’t expecting to see. “T’Challa?” He greets surprised and the woman standing next to the king makes a sound of disapproval and T’Challa merely holds up a hand to silence whatever problem she has.

“Captain.” The King greets easily. “I’ll admit that I was surprised to not see you in our meeting earlier.” Steve gets a small frown at that.

“Meeting?” He asks and his confusion must answer some sort of question for the King.

“Ah, you were unaware. That makes more sense.” The King says.

“Rogers’s presence at the meeting was unnecessary and unrequired.” Tony’s voice says from behind him as the billionaire walks into the area and barely spares Steve a look.

“I’m not sure about that, this does affect the Captain after all.” T’Challa points out and Steve looks at Tony.

“Affects me? Affects me how?” He asks Tony and Tony doesn’t engage with him.

“No, it doesn’t. Rogers has no legal standing or recourse over Barnes’s treatments or decision making. If anything, his previous reactions have shown that he’s ill suited to be any form of power of attorney for Barnes.”

“Bucky?” Steve immediately puffs up. Is Tony going after Bucky again? “I thought we’d settled this.” Steve tells him and Tony finally looks at him.

“And what is ‘this’ Rogers? What is it that we’ve ‘settled’ and pray tell how did we do so?”

“You know what I mean.”

“You mean how you beat me down and left me behind? I didn’t realize that’s how people did business these days.” Tony looks away from him and back to T’Challa. “I do thank you for agreeing to be the go between.”

“You left me little choice.” T’Challa says and there’s something there in his voice. A reprimand? “After everything you presented to the Council.”

“What?” Steve looks back and forth between them. “What does he mean?”

“The King here was attempting to put himself up for Avengers status.” Tony says. “It was declined.”

“Declined?” Steve parrots while T’Challa shakes his head.

“I wouldn’t say ‘declined’, ‘sabotaged’ would be closer to what I’d use.”

“And I wouldn’t go as far to say ‘slander’ but it’s certainly in the ballpark of the word _I’d_ use.” Tony fires back instantly. “I did nothing but give _factual_ evidence. You were given time to argue against any of the claims that were brought against you. You opted not to.”

“You left me little choice.” T’Challa fires back and there’s some sort of posturing match that goes down between the two men that Steve feels at a total loss for. “As such, you would do well to remember Mr. Stark that do you not have any influence in Wakanda and cannot make me do anything you wish of me.” Tony gets a smile that Steve’s only ever seen with the likes of Justin Hammer as he inclines his head as if he’s agreeing with T’Challa although Steve knows from experience that look means he’s doing anything but. 

“Of course your majesty, that’s why I thanked you for being willing to be the go between.” Tony says and the whole situation plays out like all of Tony’s business deals that Steve’s ever been able to see, with the king taking the option to leave with his dignity in tact and he inclines to Steve on his way out but Steve notices how he doesn’t do the same for Tony. Tony waits until the king is out of the area before he snorts to himself and goes over to the coffee maker.

“What was all that about?” Steve demands, immediately turning to Tony. “You went after T’Challa? Why? Because he sided with us?” Tony pauses and then gives Steve a look like he’s confused why Steve is snapping at him.

“I didn’t ‘go after’ T’Challa.” Tony says, slowly as if he’s confused and insulted by the accusation. “I was helping Barnes.” Tony looks away and grabs at his coffee cup. “I thought you’d be _happy_ about that.”

“…what?” Steve asks, feeling the fight leave him instantly and giving Tony a look. “How was attacking T’Challa helping Bucky?”

“Barnes is on ice again right?” Tony asks and Steve nods, not even really surprised that Tony somehow knows that information despite it being mostly a secret in Wakanda. “Don’t you want him out of it?” The question is asked softly and Steve feels his chest fill up with so much hope.

“More than anything.” He says quickly. “But…I thought…”

“Thought what Steve? That _I _wouldn’t feel pity for a prisoner of war? How lowly you must think of me.”

“You attacked us!”

“And you _lied_.” Tony fires back and Steve sighs.

“It wasn’t like that Tony. I know you know that.”

“You should be careful with what you’re sure I know.” Tony mutters to himself and Steve frowns before Tony presses on. “But I had to petition the Council and call in a few old favors in order to get Barnes released into my custody. He’ll be my responsibility if he chooses to take the option of B.A.R.F.”

“_Your_ custody? Why not mine? It should be mine.”

“I tried.” Tony says with a tired shrug. “But too many people were concerned that while you might act in the best interest for Barnes, you wouldn’t act in the best interest of anyone else and therefore weren’t a reasonable choice.” Tony gives him a look. “It took a lot of favors to even get them to give him to _me_ Steve. I figured you’d care less about the fine print and more about the fact that Barnes would be staying here while he was getting treated.”

“Bucky’s coming here?” Steve asks and his voice sounds so hopeful and Tony nods.

“Yeah. A room’s being prepared for him now.”

“He can have the one next to me.” Steve says quickly and Tony cringes.

“He can’t Steve. He has to have one down in the labs.”

“…A room or a _cell_ Tony?” Steve immediately reads between the lines and Tony sighs.

“Hardly a cell, but probably closer to that understanding. We’re going to be poking at the Winter Soldier Steve, even you acknowledged that the Winter Soldier has to be contained or you wouldn’t have let T’Challa put him on ice.” Steve pauses as he thinks about it and he sighs with a small nod.

“I understand but…why not just tell me about it?”

“I’m still angry with you.” Tony says easily. “And it’s also none of your business.”

“Bucky is my business.”

“Not legally. Legally he’s his own business.” Tony says and Steve almost argues with that since nothing could be further from the truth but he decides he’d rather not get lost in a circular argument. Not when Tony’s actually talking to him this time instead of giving him the cold shoulder.

“That still doesn’t explain why you seem to hate T’Challa.”

“That should be obvious.” Tony retorts. “He left me to freeze and die in Siberia just like you did.”

“But you’ve forgiven me for that. Can’t you just forgive him too? He was helping me Tony. He was doing the right thing.” Steve says hopefully and Tony doesn’t turn around, instead reaching out for the sugar to put some in his cup.

“T’Challa has also gone out of his way to make my life complicated. He tried to take the Avengers away from me through the Council. He forced my hand.” Tony says carefully. “If he’d stayed in his lane and just hated me from afar then we probably would have had no problems, but he didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t know?” Tony asks, turning to him. “I figured you asked him to do it. He tried to get the Council to appoint him as the head of the Avengers, in honor of his departed father and all that jazz.”

“Why didn’t you let him?”

“The Avengers are mine Steve.” Tony says, looking him in the eye before taking a sip of his coffee. “And I will do _whatever_ I need to do to protect them. From _anyone._” Those words bring a small smile to Steve’s lips. It’s good to know that while Tony’s apparently still angry with him, he’s still registering them as family with promising to protect them and with bringing Bucky in because it’d make Steve happy. He almost wants to immediately drag Nat into the room and say ‘See? You were all worried and worked up for nothing’, but he refrains.

“You had me worried there.” Steve admits after a moment. “You weren’t…the most welcoming when we came back.”

“I’m still angry with you.” Tony says.

“Yeah, but we’re going to get past this.” Steve tells him and there’s a small smile that seems to tug at Tony’s lips like he can’t help it before he smothers it.

“Things will certainly play out the way they’re supposed to.” Tony agrees with him and Steve smiles back at him. “But no time soon.” Tony’s quick to cut him off at the legs and Steve sighs with a small roll of his eyes. Naturally Tony still has to have the last word.

“When will Bucky get here?”

“He might not.” Tony says and Steve frowns.

“But you said-”

“I know what I said, and apparently I also know what you heard.” Tony retorts. “I’ve created the opportunity, but Barnes still has to take it.”

“He’ll take it.”

“Perhaps.” Tony says with a small incline of his head. “Or maybe he’ll decide not to. Either way, I’ve offered and he has to be the one to take me up on it. I’m not going to force him to relive all that crap if he doesn’t want to.”

“Wait, relive?”

“That’s how B.A.R.F. works Steve. You relive memories and you deal with them and rework them as needed.” Tony says and for a moment Steve can’t tell if his tone is patient or mocking. “If Barnes wants to use it then he’ll have to take the risks involved with it, but it was all laid out in the stuff I gave T’Challa. The rest is up to him now.”

“Do you have to make him _relive_ it? Wasn’t it cruel enough that he had to go through it once already? Can’t you do something about that?”

“If I could Steve, I would have done it before I got into the damn thing and relived Afghanistan over and over again.”

“You know it’s not the same.” Steve reprimands. “Bucky was tortured and experimented on.”

“Oh yeah, not the same at all.” Tony says and that tone is certainly mocking. “You’re absolutely right. Why didn’t I realize that? I mean, being tortured by the Ten Rings and having the ARC reactor shoved into my chest without anesthesia was just a walk in the park. How _dare_ I assume to know _anything_ about what it feels like to be in a situation like that.”

“Don’t make this about you Tony.” Steve says firmly. “I’ll admit that you probably didn’t have it easy-” There’s a flash of something that might be rage in Tony’s eyes but he doesn’t say anything. “But you have nothing on what they did to Bucky.”

“If I understand nothing about it as far as you’re concerned,” Tony starts to say, his voice far too calm. “Then where the fuck do you stand? Who are you to talk about it or make assumptions or anything like that? Because last time I checked you _volunteered _just like your Hydra pet and you know _nothing_ of what it’s like.”

“Wanda’s not Hydra anymore Tony, and she’s not my _pet_.” Steve snaps. “She’s a young girl.”

“She’s a woman.” Tony fires back. “And we’re done talking.”

“I say we’re not.” Steve says, stepping in front of him. “This thing you have against Wanda? You need to let it go.”

“This thing _I _have against Wanda? How about what she has against me?”

“She’s justified.”

“She’s _justified?_” Tony repeats and he looks like he sneers before he catches himself. “I didn’t fucking touch her parents and I didn’t have anything to do with that bomb. You want to blame someone, blame Obie but get the fuck out of my face with that shit.” Tony practically shoves past him and leaves the area and Steve lets out a frustrated sigh as he runs his hands through his hair and tugs at it for a moment.

Shit. He didn’t even get a chance to tell Tony that he wanted to approve this ‘Bucky Cell’ before Bucky came here. If Tony was going to keep Bucky in there then it was going to be the best of everything that Tony could offer for him. It was the absolute least that Tony could do after everything he did to Bucky.

He lets out a sigh. Going after Tony right now will just make things worse; he’ll have to wait a few hours. He turns and makes his way back to the common area where the others are hanging out. He should probably update them on what he’s learned about T’Challa and about Bucky coming here, and he’ll have to ask Nat to look into whatever it was that went down between Tony and T’Challa with the Council and with whatever favor he called in for Bucky. Tony might say that it’s in Bucky’s best interest but Tony’s not the best when it comes to recognizing anyone’s best interest but his own so they’ll have to take a look at it and give it the green light before it actually has a chance to go through.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :-D!!! Thank you for all the amazing reviews! <3!!!!
> 
> Here's the next chapter for you all! I know that I pick on T'Challa a lot but honestly Civil War was pretty much the last Marvel movie I saw and his character in it is absolutely horrid, especially at the end. Never understood any of that (even though I know it was to try and show that Rogers was somehow in the right or was the good guy getting ready to fight a war that he started for no reason) so that tends to show up in my stories.   
So heads up, I haven't seen a lot of the Marvel movies at this point so any and all characterizations are just headcanons and impressions.

To a point it should probably impress him how easily Rogers can find all the weak spots in Tony’s armor even after Tony was certain that he’d be ready for any and all careless and intentional attacks from the blond. What baffles him a little after the whole event in the kitchen isn’t Rogers’s complete lack of awareness or concern for reality outside of his agreement upon it, but how almost effortlessly and flawlessly he’s able to piss Tony off so spectacularly that Tony almost threw caution to the wind and murdered him right where he stood. However, because that wasn’t part of the plan – or at least at this stage, Tony might have to rework some of the later plans to allow for him to pummel Rogers just for personal vindication reasons – so Tony had to all but flee from the kitchen before he did something that would feel really good at the time but leave him dealing with a world of fallout from his actions. Even with that understanding though, Tony has to remind himself over and over again with each step away from the kitchen and to the lab elevator that they’re going to get what’s coming to them. That they’re only here because Tony didn’t want there to be a second chance after this like there would have been if they’d come back naturally from the Accords fiasco. No, he wants to salt the earth and _destroy_ them while simultaneously rising the Avengers Initiative from the grave that Rogers is so quick to dig them into. Once Tony is done with them, no one will ever look at Captain America and see anything but what he really is: an arrogant science experiment with a messiah-complex, and they won’t ever follow him or listen to him or his ever again.

_Everything in its due time. _He has to remind himself as he tugs at his tie to loosen it as he leans his head back against the elevator wall._ Everything in it’s due time_.

It is hard to remember that for a second or two because Rogers’s hypocrisy was certainly something that Tony wasn’t prepared or ready to deal with today. Sure, he’d been ready for the ‘Bucky’ conversation. In fact, he’d practically led T’Challa out of the Compound past Rogers just to open up the conversation at this time instead of having it alone with Rogers or having Rogers see Barnes arrive and people trying to guide him downstairs into Tony’s lab later. It held the smallest chance of Rogers freaking the fuck out and doing people or property damage of all the variances that Tony had considered and so Tony had allowed it. Although, he had been slightly surprised at the young king’s practical temper tantrum and attempt to…well _tattle_ on Tony to Rogers of all people. The whole scene had played out slightly differently then he’d foreseen and he had been a little caught off guard by it. When had T’Challa become so firmly up Rogers’s ass? It hadn’t always been like that had it? Tony doesn’t really remember trying to talk shop with the angry and constantly running off to fuck things up ruler when the Civil War was still happening, but earlier during the Council meeting Tony had overheard T’Challa casually talking about Rogers’s good boy image and how much ‘good’ he’d done during his time as the leader of the Avengers and how with Tony’s past history potentially clouding the minds of the everyday person how it might be beneficial to a young Council to restore an ‘American Hero’ to his ‘proper’ place over that of a war profiteer who was just one second away from becoming a super-villain.

T’Challa had all but planted his flag in Steve’s court in neon fucking lights and Tony had felt quite a bit of satisfaction revealing proof of the king’s misdeeds. It was entertaining to watch T’Challa’s face close off and then start to get more and more disgusted and frustrated with Tony as Tony laid out all the reasons why T’Challa was not only not a fit for leadership of the Avengers but also not fit for a position on the Council with his active hand in allowing and abetting Rogers’s attack and subsequent breakout of an American prison system and Wakanda’s trampling of America’s rights and their rights to hold actual criminals and terrorists until their trials. Ross and the other American diplomats and the few senators that had been present at the presentation had gone livid at the king’s arrogance and his obvious disregard for sovereign lines that weren’t Wakanda’s. It had been fun to watch as the angry fervor had overtaken _every single_ Councilmember and diplomat present at the meeting and how all of them had all but growled at the king that his seat on the Council was suspended until a full investigation was done and how the information that Tony had revealed was at complete odds with the Council’s beliefs and stance and how if it were true then Wakanda’s leader was no longer welcome at the table.

And that was only Council fallout. Tony had given FRIDAY the green light to reveal the information to a select few – namely Everhart – and he was just waiting for the public fallout from this. He’d almost feel bad about it, but T’Challa made his bed and now he was going to have to sleep in it. For a nation that demands its privacy and its sovereignty it was impressive how quickly T’Challa threw all of that to the wind to hunt Barnes and then shield Rogers in the aftermath. T’Challa was about to learn that there are far reaching consequences to one’s actions, and this was only the beginning. Perhaps once upon a time T’Challa might have had it in him to have been a good king – not that Tony’s ever subscribed to the idea of an absolute monarchy and T’Challa’s behavior has certainly reminded him of why that is – but right now he has to pay for the sins he’s committed, both in his rage and at Steve’s behest.

It was unfortunate to make an enemy of Wakanda, but Tony had seen and heard what T’Challa had been putting out there and he realized that he wasn’t the one who had made the first steps down that path. Too bad T’Challa hadn’t realized that Tony had finally stepped back into the game, no longer just flitting about the sidelines and putting out fires – no, he was taking control and heaven help anyone who stood in his way because he was not going to show mercy on something so important.

Didn’t anyone else understand that? This was never about a few individuals and ‘oh the superhero problem’ that the media loves to run with. This is about global extinction. This is about a force coming from space that’s going to wipe them all out if they don’t get their shit together and get a force ready to stand against it. How many times had Tony tried to tell people about the real issue? How many times had he banged his head up against that wall? Now, now he was done trying to get people who had proven they’re not willing to listen to work with him. No, now he was just going to do it all himself and those people better move or be moved.

_Planted like a tree. Too bad it’s easy to just uproot an annoying tree that’s in the way of progress. We’ve done it millions of times before._

Thinking of that. Tony makes a mental note to poke his head in on Sharon Carter. That speech was far too convenient and her interference blew the whole thing up time after time. Something was going on there, the question now was _what_. It was clear that Sharon had been working some angle, the only thing to figure out now was what was it and who was it for.

Tony steps out of the elevator with a sigh and runs his hand over his face as he steps into the lab again.

“Okay FRI. Let’s get this ‘cell’ set up and prep B.A.R.F. for integration into the Compound Lab’s systems. It’d be good to have it ready to go whether or not Barnes wants to take us up on it.”

** _‘Sounds good Boss.’_ **

+++

“It concerns me how you blindsided even me with this information.” Ross is saying to Tony over the table and Tony sighs.

“I hadn’t wanted to reveal it yet until we had more information. Unfortunately, T’Challa’s attempt to stage a poorly done coup forced my hand.” Tony replies to him. “As you can see, the information that I did have was damaging to a nation. I had originally wanted to gather it all and then hold a meeting with you and a few others before we did anything with it.”

“The king has attempted to point to your own interference in Wakanda’s affairs as proof that you have done the exact thing that you accuse him of doing.”

“I’m aware.” Tony says with a shake of his head. “It won’t hold. All of my information comes from satellite imaging, the recordings of the RAFT you gave me to investigate and the data from the Stark Jet that they used to actually _do_ the breakout with.”

“So, nothing that’s going to come back to bite us in the ass Stark?”

“I’m a lot more careful than that Secretary. If I’d been in Wakanda’s systems I wouldn’t have been so sloppy at it.” Tony points out and Ross looks at him for a few moments before he nods, clearly agreeing with him. “Now, I know that you and I don’t always see eye to eye-”

“Really Stark? And here I thought we were going to braid each other’s hair and gossip. You hurt me.”

“Cute. I need a favor.”

“You seem to need a lot of favors these days.”

“I’m dishing them out as easily as I’m asking.” Tony points out and Ross motions for him to continue. “I need access to Sharon Carter’s files.”

“Carter? Rogers’s girlfriend? Why?”

“I’m not sure. Call it a hunch.”

“Why don’t you explain the ‘hunch’ so that we can both have it?” Ross says firmly and Tony sighs before he lays out his concerns to the other man and he can see why Ross is where he is. The man is a fucking fortress when he wants to be and Tony can’t get a read on him.

“I think something else is going on.”

“We’ve already pulled her in for an investigation on treason which her guilt is pretty cut and dry at this point.” Ross says thoughtfully. “But I see no harm in doing more due diligence. You’ll have the files.” Ross says and Tony nods. “So, what else do you need?”

“What makes you think I need anything else?”

“Like I said, you’ve been calling in a lot of favors. I’ve been paying attention.” Ross says and Tony snorts.

“Of course, you have. Alright, there is something else I’d like from you, but you’re not going to like it.”

“I haven’t liked anything since fucking freaks started running around this planet uncontrolled.” Ross points out and Tony gives him a look.

“Careful Secretary, one of those ‘freaks’ that’s running around out there is doing so because of your own hand.”

“Careful yourself Stark. I’d hate to see our friendship take a hit from such baseless accusations.”

“Trust me Secretary, there’s nothing ‘baseless’ that I have when it comes to Banner and your connection to it.” Tony reminds him before he pushes them away from that conversation. “How’s your relationship with SHIELD these days?”

+++

“You know it’s going to blow up in your face.” Rhodey warns and Pepper is clicking her pen in that nervous gesture she’s never fully gotten rid of.

“We knew that going into this.” Tony points out. “But regardless of that, it needs to happen and it needs to happen now before someone starts to get a bright idea to ‘look into’ what I’m doing and thinking.”

“Are you even sure that the glasses and the bands are going to work?” Pepper asks and Tony thinks about it.

“The bands are made from the same material and build as the collar. They’ll work. As for the glasses…well according to my calculations they should, and we all know that I have more than enough data over a long period of time of Wanda fucking around in my head.” Tony says.

“Rogers is bound to start something.” Happy points out. “He’s bound to start punching.”

“I know.” Tony nods. “Which is why this has to be done carefully and calmly.”

“You think he cares about any of that?” Pepper asks and Tony sighs, running his hand over his face.

“Pep, what do you want from me? Wanda is a threat but she’s also a foreign national without a visa who needs to leave American soil. Sokovia wants to know that she’ll be contained during her trial.”

“Rogers doesn’t care about trial’s or anything like that.”

“Which is why I’m going to step in when he asks me to.” Tony says. “If I can convince him and the others that I’m sending in ‘legal help’ then they might think that everything’s going to be fine in the long run.” Tony shakes his head. “Plus, I’m going to make sure that it’s all timed perfectly. Rogers and I will be talking about concessions for Barnes and for Rogers to have access to him when all of this comes around. I want him holding something in his hands that reminds him of his precious Bucky and what might happen if he does something that jeopardizes that.”

“I thought you didn’t want to use Bucky?” Pepper asks and Tony shakes his head.

“No, I’m willing to use whatever and whoever I need. I just wanted to be sure that my desire to aid him was genuine and not part of a larger plan. Just because it fits into the plan as a bonus though isn’t something I’m going to be all that choked up about.” Tony says. “I need everything I can get in order to keep this from blowing up far too soon.” He looks away. “Fuck. I’d hoped that Sokovia would take longer to demand Wanda’s return and I’d hoped that there might be some time before America sent in her eviction notice.”

“Have you considered-” Rhodey starts but Tony cuts him off with a shake of his head.

“No, even Ross pointed out that I’m calling in too many favors and while it might be unwise or petty, I’m not wasting a favor on Wanda Maximoff. She’s had a delay in justice for far too long. It’s time that was fixed. We knew this was going to happen, just not this soon. It’s fine though, we’ll get in front of it like we always do and we’ll make it work for us.”

“How are you going to do that?” Happy asks.

“By doing something I really didn’t want to.” Tony says. “By pretending to be ‘one of the gang’ again. Maybe sit in a few ‘Avengers meetings’ and pretend to come up with a plan to free Wanda and get her cleared only to slowly reveal just exactly who that doe-eyed little serial killer is. Maybe by the end of it Rogers will give her up.”

“Think that’s possible?”

“I think anything’s possible as far as Rogers is concerned. If it’s not ‘Bucky’ then it’s only as good to him for as long as it’s useful and I’ll make him realize that attaching himself to Hydra darling Wanda Maximoff is a _terrible_ idea this soon after the Civil War.” Tony replies. “God I wish we had more time, but if this is what’s happening when it’s happening then we just have to get on board and make the best of it. Besides, it’ll be good to have her out of the Compound. It’s only so long before she realizes that she can’t get into my head and then she’ll start a witch hunt against me. I can’t risk that right now.”

“She’s not going to go easily.” Pepper warns. “And she’s certainly not going to willingly put on the bands.”

“I know, but we’ll have to make it happen somehow. If I can get Romanov and Rogers to tell her to just let it happen for now then we might have a chance.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game Tony.” Pepper warns and Tony sighs.

“Don’t I know it. But as with any game, you can’t see your opponent’s cards. Sokovia has laid down theirs, and I’ve just got to manage around it. I’ve got a few cards I can play myself if I absolutely have to.” Tony says, running with the metaphor. “I’ll make it work. I always do.”

“Just…be careful. You know they’re more than willing to throw you to the wolves right now.” Rhodey reminds him and Tony nods.

“I know.”

“You say you know and yet you’re still waving yourself in their faces. Just…just watch out for yourself. These vipers will turn on you for no reason at all just to do it.” Rhodey says.

“I’m more than well aware of that.” Tony says with a snort. “But wheels are moving and we’ve just got to keep up with the bus or get ran over by it.” Tony says. “And this is too important to get undone by Steve Rogers or his little tyrant brigade.”

“We know, and we agree with you.” Pepper says. “We just want to be sure that you’re not putting yourself at unnecessary risk.”

“Can’t promise you that.” Tony says apologetically. “Because we all know that everything about this is risky, but it has to be done and I’m the only one that can do this part. Let them focus on Wanda and let me handle that while you guys move around in the background. Speaking of that, do we have any information yet?” Tony asks Rhodey and Rhodey nods.

“Yeah, Cage is uncertain about stepping into the Avengers or anything like it right now with everything that’s gone on and with everything going on down by him. Jones is unwilling to talk to me right now but this Danny Rand has agreed to a meeting…but he wants to talk to you.”

“I’ll go.” Tony says with a nod. “What about the others?”

“Haven’t had a chance to reach out to them yet. SHIELD’s still too over our shoulders with that.”

“They’ll be handled soon enough.” Pepper says with full assurance and they all nod.

“Alright, well the next stage is happening far too soon, but let’s make this work people.” Tony says and he gets nods all around the room.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of the end >:-)  
Enjoy!!!

Knowing that Bucky should be showing up any day now has left Steve feeling like a kid counting down the days to Christmas. The mere knowledge that Bucky’s going to be en route to the Compound at some point in time in the near future is almost maddening. He’s ready though, he’s so ready for it. He’s already planned some things that he’s going to get to show Bucky. Things from this time that he’s learned to like and old things close enough to how they were before from their time that he knows Bucky will love. He’s already looked over the information about B.A.R.F. and he’s had Nat go over it in order to make sure that everything was on the up and up. He’s not going to lie, at first when Tony told him about Bucky coming he’d been too excited to really look that gift horse in the mouth. After the initial excitement wore off, he’d become concerned that this was some kind of long con trick that Tony was playing where he was only pretending that everything was good in order to sneak in under the radar and get Bucky in his clutches despite Bucky’s innocence.

Clint, Sam, Nat and Wanda had agreed with him and had expressed their own concerns about the billionaire’s motives when he brought it up to them. After all, it was too easy and to a point it was a little quick for Tony’s usual ‘I’m sorry here let me throw money at you and the problem until it’s fixed’ antics. So after the Avengers meeting, they’d all gotten up and sought out Tony in order to demand to see the paperwork on Bucky’s deal and know exactly what it entailed. Tony had seemed surprised – although not as absolutely caught off guard by the information that they’d held Avengers meetings without him present – and maybe even a little hurt at the insinuation of their demands and actions and while Steve wants to feel back about that, this is _Tony_. The man who even when he tries to do a good thing just tends to mess it up and Bucky’s far too important to deal with any of that after everything he’s been through. Thankfully though, Tony didn’t cause much of a fuss outside of saying that they could read it but had no authority to make any changes – hilarious and hilariously untrue and Steve knows that Tony knows that too – because the contract had already been accepted by various other parties and it had already been sent off to Bucky to look at for the final signature and that there was no more ‘negotiation phase’.

_“I don’t know how I feel about Bucky taking this.” Steve says, tracking Tony down in the kitchen. Sometimes it’s easy to find Tony these days, and that lets Steve know that Tony wants to be found because without FRIDAY in the system relaying to them the billionaire’s ware bouts whenever they wanted them it should be near impossible to track him down so quickly. “I don’t think I want him signing it as it is right now. There are too many leashes. Bucky doesn’t need that; he needs to heal.” _

_“He needs to heal, but he also needs to feel safe and others need to feel safe around him.” _

_“He’s safe.” _

_“T’Challa didn’t think so.” Tony points out. “So much so that he put him back on **ice**. Don’t you think a tracking bracelet is minor compared to that?” _

_“He’s an American citizen. That’s practically house arrest.” _

_“It **is** house arrest Steve.” Tony says with a sigh. “Bucky’s cleared pending his pardons but he isn’t a ‘free man’. Not yet at least. Not until the big brass gets told that he’s not going to turn into someone’s personal terminator doll with a few choice words.” _

_“That’s not a joke Tony.” _

_“Good, because I’m not laughing.” Tony retorts back. “Besides, it’s out of my hands at this point. If Barnes accepts it as is, then that’s what we’re moving forward with. If he doesn’t, then that’s the end of it.” _

_“The end of this draft you mean. We’ll just do it again.” _

_“Steve, do you have any ideas the number of favors I just called in for this? Just to get this paper in our hands right now? Those favors are gone. They’re not refundable or renegotiable because the contract fell through.” _

_“I know you can do better than **this** Tony.” Steve says, waving the contract in the air to let him know exactly what he’s talking about. He figures it’s time to change tactics. “After everything you did to him? After everything he went through? Especially the things **you** put him through and blamed him for when he was innocent?” Steve presses. “Don’t you think you owe it to him and to yourself to try just a **little** bit?” _

_“You don’t call this trying?” Tony asks, looking at him with an arched eyebrow but Steve can see how his grip on his mug has tightened a tiny bit. “He’s not going to go to prison for any amount of time. He’s not going to get locked away or tested on. He’s going to get cleared from his triggers here, in a state-of-the-art location with a fucking sauna and pool and every television channel you could imagine. He’s going to get to calmly and away from prying eyes get cleared from his ‘triggers’ and have a chance at getting full control over his life again. How is that ‘not trying just a **little** bit’?” _

_“Tony come on.” Steve says with a huff. “We both know what you’ve done here you could have pulled off in your sleep.” He goes for the praise, after all Tony always did respond better to the stick-carrot-stick method. “I’ve seen what you can do. Each and every single time you say you can’t manage anything else and then you turn around and make it **right**.” He looks at the brunet imploringly. “I’m just asking you to make this right. Nothing more than that. Don’t you think that’s the minimum that you owe Bucky? That you owe to all of us? Your family?” Steve asks and Tony turns away from him to grab the coffee pot and fill it. There’s a tremor in his hand and Steve knows that he’s getting through to him. “Please Tony. You told me once that you were trying to be the sort of man that could be depended on to clean up his messes. Well here’s your chance. Be that man.” _

_“If he sends it back then we can see about adding more clauses.” Tony gets out. “But at this point it’s in his hands. If he signs it then there’s nothing to be done about it. If he sends it back…I’ll look at it and see what might be done.” _

_“That’s all I’m asking.” _

+++

Although it should be Tony who tells him, Natasha’s the one who informs him that the wheels for Bucky’s pardon’s have started turning. That’s both great and terrible news because that means that Bucky’s signed the papers before Steve could contact him and tell him not to do that. He wishes that Bucky had called and talked with him before he did anything. What was T’Challa thinking letting a man who had just gotten dethawed sign legal documents?

However, it means that Bucky will be transferred soon from Wakanda to the Compound once he’s cleared for safe travel and Steve figures he’ll have to take that for now and speak to Tony about the rest later.

Tony eventually seeks him out in the living room, and he looks at all of them sitting there and watching television before he shifts awkwardly on his feet and clears his throat. Steve feels a little for him. It’s clear that he doesn’t feel like he can just come and sit down with them and it pains Steve a little that there’s still this barrier that Tony’s putting up between them. Hopefully Tony gets over it soon.

“Um, Steve can we talk?” Tony asks and Steve goes to nod before Clint speaks up.

“You can talk to him here, Stark.” He snaps. “Anything you have to say, you can say in front of the whole group. I for one know that I’m tired of all your behind the scenes conversations that seem to keep fucking us over and I know I’m not the only one.” Tony taps his fingers on the side of the tablet in his hands in a slow, seemingly deliberate motion to control some kind of emotion that Steve can’t pick up on. Normally, Steve would say that he knows Tony better than Tony knows himself. He can read Tony like an open book, but there’s something so strangely closed off here. But Tony nods once and taps his screen before handing it off to Steve.

“Barnes arrives tomorrow at three.” He says and Steve swells with excitement. “I thought you might like to be there.”

“Of course I do. Why would you think I wouldn’t?”

“…because it wouldn’t only be for…emotional support.” Tony says carefully and all of them look at him intensely.

“Tony, what did you do?” Natasha asks and Tony glances away.

“What did I do? You all know what I did. I stuck my neck out for Barnes.” Tony retorts defensively. “You do realize that there are a lot, and I mean a _lot_ of people who wanted to prevent this from happening?” He looks back at them. “A certain secretary of state for instance? I’m just saying that if you’re there then we can show that there’s a certain level of security inherent in his stay here at the Compound past the cell and the armor. You’re as strong as he is Steve. I’ll have the suit on standby but someone could argue that it takes a few minutes to mobilize. A lot can happen in that time. I need to show that there is a much more immediate response should something trigger Barnes during the transfer.”

“Ross wanted to stop you from helping Bucky?” Steve asks with a frown. “Why?”

“Are you kidding? He has the serum in him. Or at least something close enough for Ross. You saw what he let happen to Bruce at the promise of having something ‘close enough’. Now Barnes could be his new golden ticket. You’re Captain America, you’re trickier to get his hands on but Barnes has a history of being an international criminal-” Steve goes to say something but Tony holds up his hand to stop him. “I know he’s innocent, _we_ know that, but the general public can be swayed one way or the other and if Ross starts showing pictures of the Winter Soldier’s confirmed kills then they’re going to say that he’s a monster that needs to be put down. They’re not going to care that he’s been brainwashed, they’re just going to see that and they’re going to want blood.” Tony sighs. “I’m doing my best here Steve but I need help. I need all of your help. Nothing can go wrong. If it does then Barnes will slip through our fingers and we won’t get a second chance. We pulled this off because Ross hasn’t really had the time to get his ducks in a row or to get a cause to drag us out into the mud again. We have to do everything perfectly. We need to be saints. We can’t give him anything to hold over us. You have to realize how dangerously precarious all of our situations are. They’re going to make a pull for each of us and we’re going to have to let it roll off our backs and stick together or we’re going to lose this time and there will be no bringing it back afterwards.” Tony implores and Steve takes a moment before he nods and the others nod along with him.

Ross. Of course it would be Ross. That man has been gunning for them for years. Tony’s been going up against that monster for a while now and he lost. He failed. When it came to the Accords they all know it, and apparently, it’s a real threat in the wings still but this time he’ll lose Bucky if this all falls apart again.

“Okay. I’ll be there. We all will. It’ll be better if there’s a united front right?”

“Yeah. True or not, it’d be better.” He replies and Natasha gives Tony a look.

“True or not? What do you mean Tones?” She asks and there’s a brief moment of some sort of look on Tony’s face at the overly friendly nickname. Steve can’t really remember Natasha ever calling Tony it before and he wonders if she’s poking at Tony a little.

“I think it’s safe to say that we’re not a hundred percent back to the place we were before the Accords.” Tony replies, looking away from them. “Too soon to be. I get that. It takes time for shit like this to pass over, but we don’t have that time. So ‘fake it till you make it’ is our new motto.”

“The only one not where they’re supposed to be is you Stark.” Wanda points out with a small sneer and Tony sighs and shrugs.

“Regardless, we need to be on our best behavior. We can’t afford to have _any_ kind of reproach on us right now or not only are they going to snap up Barnes, they’re going to pull out a new version of the Accords and these ones will be _worse_.” Tony warns them. “But we’re doing well so far. Out of sight, out of mind. As long as we don’t make waves then we’re in the clear.”

“I agree.” Natasha says, cutting off anything Wanda or Clint might have said to that before she smiles a friendly smile and goes over to Tony, wrapping her arm in his in that way that she used to do before. “It’s good to know that we’re going to get past this though.”

“Yeah.” Tony says easily. “The Avengers can’t afford to fall apart because of the actions of a few individuals.”

“Agreed.” She says with a nod and Tony gives her a smile.

“I’m glad you feel that way. Now, I’m sure that Grey’s Anatomy is calling you but I have to get back to-” Tony starts to say before he stops and clearly listens to something that they can’t hear. He gets a confused look. “Say that again?” He asks and he listens to what Steve figures must be FRIDAY before he looks up at them and Steve can’t tell if his look is terrified, baffled or a mix of the two.

“What is it?” Nat asks. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Tony says with a small shake of his head. “Ross is here with immigration officers.” Tony quickly holds up a hand. “Nobody panic. Immigration officers means that Ross isn’t here to try and toss anyone in the RAFT. Let’s figure out what’s happening and just remain calm and cooperate to the best of our ability so that he can’t say we broke the law by resisting. FRIDAY, get Hogarth and whatever free lawyers we have not currently working on anything on standby until we know what’s happening.” Those words relax something inside of Steve, after all there’s nothing that Tony’s money can’t fix, and Steve can see that thought run through everyone else’s mind.

“Tony’s right. Let’s not give them cause.” Steve says and they nod at his orders as they all turn around to stand together and face off against the man who has just walked into the area:

Ross.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay guys! Here's the next chapter!   
And just a heads up - I'll be working on NANO so updates might be scarce. 
> 
> Thank you all! And Enjoy!

Half of Tony wants to pinch himself as he stands in the elevator heading up to the penthouse. He’s still not sure if he’s in some weird waking dream or if all of this has really just transpired. He tugs at his tie to loosen it as the numbers count up. Pepper, Rhodey and Happy are waiting there for him to hear about what happened with the ‘ICE’ meeting and the revelation of the international arrest warrant for Wanda. Honestly, Tony can barely wrap his mind around it and he was there, in the room as it all went down. He got to watch it all play out in front of his own eyes and he’s still baffled by the end result.

The doors open with the small chime of arriving to the designated floor and the gang all sit up straighter when he comes through. He can see their faces are tight and curious and he almost regrets not letting FRIDAY just relay the information between them. But this is something that Tony wanted to discuss, not just relay information and so the meeting happens now in the aftermath of Maximoff’s departure from the Compound.

“How did it go?” Pepper asks, being the first to break the silence as Tony comes over and practically drops himself onto the couch opposite of them with a huge sigh. Her eyes search his face in an attempt to try and get some kind of clue about the information that he brings and how it affects their next moves going forward. He takes a moment, letting himself settle into the reality of it all, before he runs a hand over his face and lets out a tired chuckle.

“Ross should get an Oscar for that performance.” Tony says with a shake of his head and he drops his hand as he sees some of the tension bleed out of them only to be replaced with a kind of hopeful curiosity. “He played his role perfectly. Although I guess in hindsight I shouldn’t really be surprised. Half of acting is keeping things close to the truth and believing it, and there’s nothing Ross believes more than the fact that Rogers and people like him need to be contained and controlled and experience repercussions for their actions.” Tony lets out another soft huff. “I think he actually enjoyed playing the role of ‘obvious bad guy’. Rogers and his little band of idiots just _ate it up_. It was pathetic.” Tony feels himself finally let out a sigh of relief. Something he’s been holding inside of himself just waiting for the other shoe to drop, but sitting here now lets him know that the first half of the ‘plan’ has ended. “God I can’t believe that worked.”

“So what exactly happened?” Pepper presses after a brief pause and Tony snorts.

“I know that we were banking almost everything on Rogers’s need to play ‘Bucky’s Knight in Shining Armor’ role, but even I didn’t expect for it to go down so perfectly.” Tony says. “I managed to ‘theorize’ in a round about way that Ross was probably trying to distract us and get us to make a mistake with Wanda while his _real plan_ was to get his hands on Barnes.”

“And Romanov didn’t call you out on it?” Rhodey asks, disbelieving and Tony actually lets out a laugh at that memory.

“Please. Romanov isn’t even one tenth as good as she thinks she is and when I made it seem like there might be a chance that we would work together, that I would give her access to Stark Industries funds and lawyers and shit, she jumped on it. I alluded to the thought that I might need a second in command when dealing with Ross and all this crap and she just slid on over and I didn’t call her out on it.” Tony shakes his head. “Not just that, she turned around and backed me up. She did the convincing _for me_. Got them to all back off and ‘believe in each other like we used to’ back when we were a complete unit and how that made us ‘untouchable’. It was disgusting. I almost wanted to pull out my hair and scream. _“Us together is the one thing that Ross and Hydra and whoever comes next can’t beat”_” Tony quotes. “I almost walked off just to keep from punching something or someone.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Rhodey says, disbelief clear in his tone and that disbelief is mirrored on Pepper’s and Happy’s faces.

“I almost wish I was. I mean, it made my life easy for Maximoff which let’s be honest was the only _real_ threat; but it still pissed me off.” Tony says. “How it’s possible to live in that deep a level of delusion, I have no idea and I hope it isn’t contagious.” Tony waves a hand. “But all of that ‘together’ talk got Maximoff to agree to return to Sokovia with no outbursts.”

“So Romanov and Rogers said some flowery words and she let herself be arrested?”

“Not technically. Ross didn’t reveal the warrant Sokovia issued for Maximoff’s arrest. He just touched on the American order to have her leave American soil. I then let them take the jet to transport her to Sokovia where she has citizenship to avoid any other ‘issues’ regarding that problem. When she touches down on the soil, she’ll be taken to jail.”

“Is that going to work? I doubt that she’s just going to let them put the collar on her again.”

“No, Ross and I already planned for that. I created wrist bands made with adamantium that has all the wiring of the collar within them. They’ll stay on during her entire time in custody.”

“And she’s going to just put them on? She didn’t ‘hear’ that this was the plan?” Happy asks and Tony shakes his head.

“No. Before Ross came I gave him and his group B.A.R.F. ear pieces. It blocked Maximoff’s powers.” Tony rolls his eyes. “Idiot even said it aloud. _“But Steve, I can’t read their minds”_.” Tony sighs. “So I had to pretend with Romanov that she didn’t mean ‘mind reading’ and that she was protected under the trainee clauses of the Accords – said Accords that they haven’t actually signed and therefore do not get the benefits of them but don’t even bother trying to explain that nuance to those morons.” Tony says. “They know to keep them on the whole time and they managed to slip them on her without her noticing when she landed and right before the officers came to arrest her. Ross has already given the green light on all of that.”

“I still can’t believe she left the Compound to go slum it out in Sokovia.” Happy says and Tony snorts.

“Please. She believed that I’d procured her the most expensive apartment to stay in during her time there. She thought that she was going to be staying in the nicest accommodations that money could buy and apparently according to Barton, that was the ‘absolute least thing I could do’.”

“Fuck that guy.” Rhodey snaps with some heat behind the words and he gets nodded agreements from everyone else. “Seriously. Barton’s been on my shit list for a while now. There’s being a dick and then there’s going above and beyond that to the level that only Barton seems to be able to accomplish these days.”

“You know…” Tony starts to say. “Sometimes I wonder if he ever really shook off the Scepter’s influence.” He admits. “I remember when he was different once upon a time. Night and day different, back before Maximoff. Sometimes I wonder if he actually did get influenced by her and he just didn’t know it. If the Scepter left a back door or something into his mind that she manipulates. Either intentionally or unintentionally.”

“It’s certainly a concern.” Rhodey agrees with a nod. “Although I’d be a lot less likely to accept that it was ‘accidental’ in any way as far as Maximoff is concerned. She’s got too much history playing with people’s minds for her own pleasure and benefit. But they know not to take the bands off at any time?”

“Yeah, the Sokovian police force has been made aware. If those bands come off she’ll have full access to her powers again which is something _none_ of us want.” Tony answers him.

“What it…what if they go through the trial and they find her innocent?” Happy asks, bringing up a legitimate concern and Tony sighs.

“Then that’s what happens and we deal with it.” He answers. “I doubt it will come to that. Maximoff and her brother were homegrown anarchist terrorists back before they ever joined Hydra and then they became war crime committing terrorists. That’s not even counting the time she willingly sided with Ultron and destroyed Johannesburg. If they find her innocent, I’ll be thoroughly surprised.”

“What are you going to do when it gets out that she’s been arrested? Won’t Rogers want to go break her out of prision?” Pepper points out and Tony nods.

“Yeah. I’m hoping that Barnes’s arrival tomorrow will prevent any stupid outbursts like that. Plus I think that Romanov will try to make Rogers ‘play nice’ with me which will delay some of that and if all else fails then Ross gave me a pretty damn good card to play when Rogers starts undoubtedly quoting the whole ‘plant yourself like a tree’ bullshit.”

“Oh? What did he give you?” Pepper asks.

“Remember how we were all confused about Carter’s role in all of that? What she got out of it or whatever? I never once believed that she was ‘so in love as to betray her country’ bullshit. Carter’s not that sentimental.” Tony waves a hand and the holographic copies of the information pulls itself up for them to see. “Well as it turns out, I was right. We all got played. Carter is Hydra.”

“What?” Echoes from Pepper’s, Rhodey’s and Happy’s mouths all at the same time.

“Yup. Carter’s been Hydra. She was Pierce’s right hand woman. She was placed in Rogers’s path in order to manipulate him through her connection to Peggy and to get him to do what Hydra needed him to do when they needed him to do it. I’m figuring that she was supposed to get into his bed, but then Barnes happened and that mission got put on hold. Then Rogers was just the gift that kept giving as far as they were concerned and there was no reason to get involved all that much because Rogers kept fucking everything up. All he needed was a direction and Carter gave it to him.” Tony rolls his eyes. “I figure that if he starts talking about heading out to do what he’s done before, then I’ll show how it played into Hydra’s hands and how if he just waits then we can ‘do this right and it’ll never be a problem again’. That he’s a ‘hero’ and that the people know that and they’ll back him up but that he needs to use it sparingly.” Tony shakes his head at those words that he’ll undoubtedly have to say with a heavy amount of earnestness someday in the future. Rhodey, Happy and Pepper look like they’re all fighting the urge not to gag themselves.

“Do you really think that placing all of your cards on Barnes is really going to work?” Pepper asks.

“Look what Rogers did to the world already for the guy.” Tony says. “Hell yeah I think it’ll be enough. Plus, Rogers thinks he’s owed some kind of ‘happy ending’ bullshit for being such a ‘good guy’. I’ll let him go on believing that to his heart’s content. I tried to teach him once that wasn’t how the world actually worked but then I shielded him from really understanding that lesson. Time’s up though, and the piper’s come calling. Either they figure it out on their own or they fall. I’m not going to be there to catch them anymore.”

“And the Accords?” Happy asks.

“They’re still waiting for Rogers’s ‘In Good Faith’ meetings and agreements. Something that requires compromise which Rogers never learned. Eventually he’ll fall outside of the agreements of his pardon’s conditions and that’ll be that. As for the others, Rand has already gotten into negotiations. I’ve started the negotiations with May and Peter as well as Harley, so they’ll be reaching out to the Accord’s soon, and I guess we’ll see what else comes out of the woodworks. Rogers might see this as retribution, but it isn’t. It’s a reckoning. Nothing is happening here that isn’t a direct result of his own actions. He took advantage of me and spit on the world. That kind of behavior has consequences. That doesn’t mean that everything else is going to get wrapped up in his bullshit. The Accords will go on, and will work with future Avengers and any Avengers who get their shit together in time. Past that…I don’t know. I guess we’ll just have to hold out hope that everything keeps going as smoothly as it has been.”

“Hopefully it does.” Happy says and he gets a few nods.

“Well, the biggest problem comes tomorrow. Once Barnes arrives, we’ll get a good grasp of how everything else might play out.” Tony says to that.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know that I'm working on NANO, but I needed a break and wrote this up. ENJOY!
> 
> (Also, a little hint about this chapter - don't take certain things for face value)

There’s something inside of him that feels a little bad at being on cloud nine with everything that just went down with Wanda. He knows that she’s going to come back soon, and it might be good for her to go home and get some quiet time to herself for a while, but having it happen because of Secretary Ross is something that Steve could have done without. 

He’d never really taken Secretary Ross as a threat before, always figuring that Tony would be able to smack that upstart down whenever he tried to get up and come against the Avengers, but seeing Tony have to give ground to him in this battle is surprising to see. Tony never gives ground, he’s not particularly good at it even when he probably should in order to win the war. But that seems to be all Tony’s doing right now. Giving ground to everyone. 

Not that Steve’s fully complaining. Tony giving ground means that Bucky’s coming home, but he just wishes that Tony wouldn’t cave so much to outside forces. 

But none of that matters now, because Bucky’s due to arrive any hour now. It’s finally over. All that Steve fought for, all that he lost, he’s finally done fighting that fight. The Avengers are coming back together, Tony is slowly coming along, and Bucky’s coming home. It was all worth it in the end, just like Steve knew it would be. 

“Steve! Steve man you need to come see this!” Sam’s voice calls out to him from the lounge area and Steve frowns but he rushes over to see what’s got the other in such a state. When he enters the area, he already knows that something has gone wrong, something big. Clint’s pacing around, looking as deadly as Steve’s ever seen him; Natasha’s just staring at the television screen with pursed lips and unhappy lines on her forehead. Sam’s looking at the same thing she is and Steve turns to see what they’re all watching that’s gotten these reactions from them. 

_ Scarlet Witch in Custody _ is the title line that’s going on the bottom of the screen as the reporter talks about something while the video of officers dragging Wanda through an angry mob of people plays in the background. The image steals Steve’s breath from his lungs and he clenches his fists. Why are they still coming after them? And how did they get Wanda? How did they take her down? Why was she struggling and kicking but not using her powers to defend herself against them? Why would they even want to do this to her? Wanda was a hero, she saved Sokovia from Tony’s machines or had they forgotten that fact? 

“We’re going to go get her.” Clint snaps, finally stopping in his pacing to look at Steve and Steve nods. “They’re probably experimenting on her right now.” Clint looks back at the television before he snarls. “Fucking Stark. I knew we couldn’t fucking trust him. I should have put an arrow in his fucking chest.” 

“Stark didn’t do this man.” Sam defends but even Steve can hear the uncertainty in his voice. 

“Oh sure he didn’t. He just advocated for Wanda to go back to Sokovia _alone_ and separated us from her so that we couldn’t be there to help her when they attacked.” 

“ICE came and make Wanda leave.” Steve says with a frown. “Secretary Ross did that.” 

“And you think Stark didn’t know? Bastard probably made a deal with Ross to get Ross to do it for him.” Clint says. 

“Tony hates Ross.” Steve says and Clint gives him a look. 

“Does he though? Does he? Do rich and evil people really hate other people like them? Why do you think people like Ross and Stark stay up on top Cap? They scratch each other’s backs when the time comes.” Clint asks and Natasha interjects. 

“We don’t know for certain that Tony was involved.” She says and Steve looks at her. She doesn’t sound convinced either. 

“Do you think he was?” 

“I think Clint brings up reasonable concerns.” Nat says. “And how does something like this happen without Tony’s knowledge?” She looks at him. “And how did they nullify Wanda’s powers without Tony’s aid?” 

There it is. The proof of the brunet’s wrongdoing. It hits him like a sledgehammer and even he’s a little surprised by how unprepared for the brunet’s betrayal he is. 

“But…Tony’s helping us…He’s…” Steve trails off, he doesn’t know what to say or how to finish that sentence. 

“When has Tony ever bowed out? Especially when he was the one in the wrong Steve?” Nat asks him and Steve’s jaw clenches. 

“So what? All of this was just a game to him?” He asks and Clint snorts. 

“You’re surprised? Stark’s always thought the world was his playpen for him to do whatever the fuck he wanted and break whatever toys he didn’t like.” He says and Steve turns to the direction of Tony’s office. He knows that the brunet came in earlier today, he saw him from a distance and he’d thought it kind to not poke at him when Bucky was going to be arriving in a few short hours. 

Now he’s realizing that he should have. He should have been over Tony’s shoulder twenty-four seven in order to stop something like this from happening. Haven’t they all learned before that Tony off by himself and without oversight tends to land everyone in hot water? 

“Where are you going Cap?” Sam asks as Steve starts off and Steve calls out over his shoulder. 

“To go talk to Tony.” He doesn’t need to turn around to know that they’re all following him. He winds through the hallways till he gets close to the brunet’s office and it’s when he’s approaching that he hears Tony’s voice. 

“No, no I get that, but there has to be something that can be done. Those bindings were given to Ross for the incarceration of the Scarlet Witch at the RAFT, how did the Sokovian police force get them?” Tony’s voice asks and Nat reaches out and grabs Steve’s arm, stopping him in his tracks. “Those were not government property; those were Stark designs. Which means that Ross had no right to offer them out.” There’s some more silence. “No I get that, I do, but there has to be something that can be done about this. Why weren’t we informed? The Sokovia Accords should have stepped in during this. We should have been alerted _before_ they arrested her. By the Accords rules this whole situation should have been handled differently.” Tony lets out a frustrated sound. “Shit. Okay, but even if Wanda hasn’t individually signed the Accords, Sokovia has agreed to abide by them in interactions with the Avengers. The Scarlet Witch is an Avengers member. Shouldn’t there be some kind of crossover protection?” There’s another pause. “Could she sign now? Get released back into our custody during the trial?” 

“Who is he talking to?” Sam whispers and Nat shrugs, listening to the brunet. They’ve all made a conscious decision to wait and to hear how this plays out. It’s a little wrong, to be eavesdropping like this, but how else are they to know what the billionaire is truly up to? 

“Shit. Fine, send in legal representation to hold down the fort until I get this whole thing figured out. I want to know that she’s being kept away from other prisoners and being treated _fairly_ in all of this.” There’s that pause again. “Do you really think it could go that way? But without my aid she’s got no legal protection, there has to be something that can be done without people calling out ‘mind control fraud’…I don’t want excuses, I want solutions. Get me some.” He clearly hangs up the call and Steve can hear him let out a frustrated groan. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit, _shit_. Okay FRIDAY I need you to get me everything on Wanda’s case. I need to know all of the charges, who is bringing them against her and what her Sokovian legal representation looks like. I also want Ross on the phone asap to explain to me why Sokovia has the power suppression cuffs that were loaned out to him and not them.” 

** _ ‘On it Boss.’ _ **

“Shit, what about Barnes? Is everything okay there?” 

** _ ‘After the initial delay, everything has gone according to schedule.’  _ **

“That explains why Ross retracted his objection this morning so easily.” Tony snaps. “He wanted my focus on Barnes and not Wanda. Shit. Why can’t anything work out according to plan?” 

** _ ‘Best laid plans of mice and men?’  _ ** FRIDAY offers its creator and Tony groans. 

“Don’t remind me. God they’re going to kill me. Shit. This was not what I wanted to deal with today…. crap. Can you ping the others? Get them in here? They should hear it from me hopefully before they hear it from any other sources.” 

** _ ‘Sending a message now Boss.’ _ ** Steve can hear FRIDAY say and there’s a second’s pause before his cellphone buzzes in his pocket with a new message. Steve glances at the others and Nat motions for them to wait a bit. Steve follows her lead until she finally nods and they all approach the slightly open door and knock on it. 

“Tony? You called for a meeting?” She says, poking her head in and Steve’s always impressed with how she can pretend like there’s nothing wrong. 

“Yeah, yeah come in.” Tony says and Steve gets a good look at him and he feels a pang of guilt hit him for even beginning to think that Tony had betrayed them. The billionaire barely looks put together. He looks like he might have been at one point, before he started running his hands through his hair and taking off his tie and jacket at some point. He also looks exhausted, like he’s going to the gallows or something and he’s just got no fight left in him to struggle against it. 

Ross did that to him. God does Steve hate Ross. 

“What’s going on?” Sam asks, playing the role that Nat’s assigned them all and Tony runs a hand through his hair. 

“Okay, so don’t freak out. _Please_ don’t freak out. The last thing any of us need is one of you freaking out and messing everything up.” Tony says. “But…Sokovia has arrested Wanda.” 

“What?” Clint jumps up, his fake rage barely even a tenth of the true rage he held in the other room when he saw it on the television. “Why?” 

“Officially? Domestic terrorism and war crimes.” Tony says before he holds up his hands at all of their shouting. 

“Wanda helped take down Ultron!” Steve snaps. “She’s a hero.” 

“They’re not touching her from when she officially became the ‘Scarlet Witch’.” Tony says. “They’re going after her time pre-Avengers when she was allied with various anarchist groups and Hydra.” 

“They thought it was SHIELD.” Clint points out and Tony sighs. 

“And what does that mean? SHIELD isn’t an internationally recognized government entity. It isn’t recognized as anything but a spy agency. SHIELD agents around the world can be tried for treason in their countries if caught and SHIELD has no real recourse to get them out of it.” Tony tries to explain. 

“But they’re the good guys.” Steve says. “They help people and they keep people like Hydra from destroying the world.” 

“SHIELD _was_ Hydra Steve.” Tony says softly and Steve can feel himself puff up and he’s not sure how he feels when Tony flinches back at that like a scared dog preparing itself to get kicked. “And regardless of that, there’s no way they really thought that they were working for SHIELD. I’m guessing that Fury or someone coached her on what to say when asked, but there’s no way.” 

“You don’t know that.” 

“She wanted the destruction of the Avengers at one point Steve. She thought that anyone working with me or under my payroll – which let’s be honest was SHIELD for a while there – was the absolute devil on earth and needed to be destroyed. Why would she join it if she wanted us dead when we were their poster children?” Tony shakes his head. “No, the whole thing has the stink of ‘rewritten history’ and people are going to notice it when they start looking.” 

“So what are you going to do?” Nat asks and Tony lets out a strained chuckle. 

“I don’t have a clue.” He admits. “I’m being informed that any intervention on my part could be seen as proof that Wanda’s messed about with our heads in some way.” 

“That’s bullshit.” Clint growls and Tony nods immediately. 

“I know that. You know that, but the people we need to convince don’t know that.” He says with a strained sort of calmness. Like he’s trying to soothe a vicious animal and Steve’s not sure how he feels thinking that in regards to Tony’s behaviors towards them. “Not to mention, if we push the ‘traumatized child’ aspect then that means that I’m the villain. People will believe that, but they won’t buy it if I come in and play knight in shining armor.” 

“So what does that mean?” Nat asks and Tony looks at her. 

“That means…we let this play out a bit. Get a feeling of which way the wind is blowing. Do our best to turn the PR spin on it into something favorable to Wanda. I doubt that they’ll actually convict her of anything, this is probably a power play of some sort and if we can find out what that play is then we can make this go away.” Tony says and he tilts his head a little. “Not to be the bad guy here…but this could be a gift in disguise. When Wanda gets cleared of these charges then that’s going to show a lot of people that justice was served and that there’s nothing to come at the rest of us for. It’d also be a message to anyone else who might think to do something like this to any other member of the Avengers.” He says and Clint puffs up. 

“So you want to _leave_ her there?” 

“It might be best. Let the courts clear her naturally like they did with Barnes. That makes it on the up and up, and it makes it to where she’d be above reproach.” He says and Nat nods, holding out a hand and cutting off anything Clint would say. 

“No, Tony’s right. If we can get this to look like it played out naturally then it’ll work in Wanda’s favor. I’ll get on it.” She says and Tony lets out a small, relieved sigh. “But I’ll need your help.” 

“Whatever you need, you have it.” Tony says easily and something knotted up inside of Steve relaxes a little at that. 

“Okay then. We need a plan. We’ve brought Bucky home, and now we’ve got to bring Wanda.” Steve says and he gets nods all around. “Then let’s make a plan.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to leave a comment or kudo but please no comments of a critiquing or negative nature. Thank you for your understanding.


End file.
